Figuring the games market

http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/33/ - guide to age ranges and the requirements for them.

PEGI 3

-- The content of games given this rating is considered suitable for all age groups. Some violence in a comical context (typically Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry cartoon-like forms of violence) is acceptable. The child should not be able to associate the character on the screen with real life characters, they should be totally fantasy. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to scare or frighten young children. No bad language should be heard

Possibility, games violence may possibly be less comically cartoony than the examples given however, looney tunes styled combat (i.e. being hit by a mallet squishing a character flat or an explosion turning the character into a pile of ash) could still be a possible route to discuss. Won't feature any sounds or images that could scare children, race maps won't feature any sort of possibly frightening material. The children mustn't be able to associate with characters in the game and should be totally fantasy, the puppets may need to be looked over in order to make sure none resemble humans too much.

Other examples of PEGI 3

Mario Kart 8: The content of this game is suitable for all persons.

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PEGI 7

-- Any game that would normally be rated at 3 but contains some possibly frightening scenes or sounds may be considered suitable in this category.

Possibility of being picked but changes to certain aspects would need to be addressed. The characters would need to be seen too and in some cases would need to be changed to less resemble humans to fit in with a PEGI 3 rating. Combat would be able to be less cartoony in style at this PEGI rating and more graphic combat (while not overly graphic) to a PEGI 3 rating.

Other examples of PEGI 7

LittleBigPlanet Karting : It contains: Non-realistic looking violence towards fantasy characters

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PEGI 12

-- Video Games that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as video games that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.

Other possibility, if we decide to go down a more realistic design for the game which is a large possibility as we want to stay away from Mario Kart resemblances as much as we can. With this age group chosen we could focus on more graphical combat between players,  No nudity or bad language (Characters could possibly make instrumental noises or the sounds of materials being scratched / rubbed / ripped etc. so no language could potentially be a design choice) would be shown in the game ever so that wouldn't affect the choice of rating. Combat could be far more graphic and against humanoid characters unlike the other PEGI ratings.

Other examples of PEGI 12

Project Spark : Non-realistic looking violence towards human characters

Hyrule Warriors : Non-realistic looking violence towards human characters

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The violence tag will be needed if we decide on PEGI 7 or above and more realistic combat, it will definitely be required if we decide to go with PEGI 12 and the more humanoid characters.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp - age guide and their requirements

EVERYONE 10+ Content is generally suitable for ages 10 and up. May contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.